The many similarities between Brazilian politics and the United States | Moira Donegan

Like us, they were founded on early violence that casts long shadows over our subsequent attempts at equality and pluralism: chattel slavery and the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples. Like us, they are host to racially and religiously heterogenous populations, aspiring to national projects based not so much in shared ethnic identity as in shared ideals. And like us, these Latin American nations have an authoritarian streak, one that has historically been encouraged, both tacitly and explicitly, by the US itself.

And the would-be beneficiary of the botched coup, the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, is in the US himself, shacking up in Orlando at the behest of the man who inspired January 6, former US president Donald Trump. On Monday, the day after the riot, Bolsonaro reportedly checked into a Florida hospital, supposedly complaining of stomach pains.

Bolsonaro has long reminded American observers of Trump, and not only for his far-right politics and indifference to democratic checks on his own power. When he was sworn in in 2019, after a corruption scandal and heated partisan impeachment swept his leftwing predecessor out of office, Bolsonaro offended Brazilians as much with his policy positions as with his foul mouth.

But one massive difference is in how the Brazilians have responded to this threat to their democracy. In the aftermath of the January 6 violence, the Biden administration reportedly balked at pursuing an actual impeachment of Donald Trump, stymying Democrats in the House who wanted to pursue an aggressive accountability strategy; in the years since, the Department of Justice has repeatedly dragged its feet, passed the buck, and seemed unable or unwilling to do anything other than passively allow Trump and his inner circle to sabotage the democratic process with impunity.